feed info

59 articles from PhysOrg

Airborne mapping sheds light on climate sensitivity of California redwoods

Throughout California, the effects of climate change are evident from increasing frequencies of intense wildfires and mudslides to widespread and prolonged droughts. These changes also threaten one of California's most iconic endemic species: coastal redwoods. Coastal redwoods are not only some of the tallest and oldest trees on Earth, but redwood forests are also capable of storing three times...

Introducing a new isotope: Mendelevium-244

A team of scientists working at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has discovered a new form of the human-made element mendelevium. The newly created isotope, mendelevium-244, is the 17th and lightest form of mendelevium, which is element 101 on the periodic table.

Simple device monitors health using sweat

A device that monitors health conditions in the body using a person's sweat has been developed by Penn State and Xiangtan University researchers, according to Huanyu "Larry" Cheng, assistant professor of engineering science and mechanics, Penn State.

NASA analyzes the newest Atlantic Ocean subtropical depression

NASA's Aqua satellite used infrared light to analyze the strength of storms in the North Atlantic Ocean's newly formed Subtropical Depression 4. Infrared data provides temperature information to find the strongest thunderstorms that reach high into the atmosphere which have the coldest cloud top temperatures.

Welfare concerns highlighted over 'institutional hoarding' of cats

The compulsive hoarding of animals is a poorly understood psychiatric disorder in people. Characterised by failure to provide minimum standards of care, it can result in malnourishment, uncontrolled breeding, overcrowding and neglect. Typically there is denial of this failure and its impact on the animals and people involved. Even less well understood is the growing trend of 'institutional...

NASA satellite gives a hello to tropical storm Dolly

During the morning of June 23, the fourth system in the Northern Atlantic Ocean was a subtropical depression. By the afternoon, the subtropical depression took on tropical characteristics and was renamed Dolly. NASA's Terra satellite greeted Tropical Storm Dolly by taking an image of the new tropical storm.

Innovative smartphone-camera adaptation images melanoma and non-melanoma

An article published in the Journal of Biomedical Optics (JBO), "Point-of-care, multispectral, smartphone-based dermascopes for dermal lesion screening and erythema monitoring," shows that standard smartphone technology can be adapted to image skin lesions, providing a low-cost, accessible medical diagnostic tool for skin cancer.

Slow-growing rotavirus mutant reveals early steps of viral assembly

Rotavirus is responsible for more than 130,000 deaths in infants and young children younger than five years, every year. The virus causes severe, dehydrating diarrhea as it replicates in viral factories called viroplasms that form inside infected cells. Viroplasms have been difficult to study because they normally form very quickly, but a serendipitous observation led researchers at Baylor College...

NASA's first planetary defense mission target gets a new name

Nearly two decades ago, a near-Earth asteroid was discovered to have a moon and the binary system was given the name "Didymos"—Greek for "twin," a loose description of the larger main body and the smaller orbiting moon, which became unofficially known as Didymos B.

Suomi NPP satellite captures 63 mile smoke trail from bush fire

NOAA/NASA's Suomi NPP satellite captured this image of the Bush Fire on June 22, 2020 showing clouds of smoke pouring off the Bush Fire that is plaguing Arizona. Overnight (to the 23rd) the fire grew to 186,848 acres, growing 2,200 acres overnight. On June 23 the fire was 61 percent contained.

3-D-printed neutrino detectors

Plastic scintillators are one of the most used active materials in high-energy physics. Their properties make it possible to track and distinguish between particle topologies. Among other things, scintillators are used in the detectors of neutrino oscillation experiments, where they reconstruct the final state of the neutrino interaction. Measurements of oscillation phenomena are carried out...

Biomechanical analyses and computer simulations reveal the Venus flytrap snapping mechanisms

The Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) takes only 100 milliseconds to trap its prey. Once their leaves, which have been transformed into snap traps, have closed, insects can no longer escape. Using biomechanical experiments and virtual Venus flytraps a team from Freiburg Botanical Garden and the University of Stuttgart has analyzed in detail how the lobes of the trap move. Freiburg biologists Dr....

A blue spark to shine on the origin of the universe

An interdisciplinary team of scientists led by researchers from DIPC, Ikerbasque and UPV/EHU, has demonstrated that it is possible to build an ultra-sensitive sensor based on a new fluorescent molecule able to detect the nuclear decay key to knowing whether or not a neutrino is its own antiparticle.

Size matters in the sex life of salmon

For Atlantic salmon, size matters when it comes to love. Larger males and females that may spend up to four years at sea produce many more babies, but they are very rare compared to younger fish.